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Message: <blockquote data-quote="guildofblades" data-source="post: 5987411" data-attributes="member: 27324">A game store may indeed be a destination location...to established customers. And so you don't need to pay a premium to be at the crossroads of a busy shopping district just to get repreat business.However, never underestimate incidental discovery.For instance, our store is almost 4 years old and we actually sign up more new customers to our rewards card program per month now than we did back during the first year or two. We track how these new customers find us.<a href="http://www.enworld.org/forum/usertag.php?do=list&action=hash&hash=1" target="_blank">#1</a>  Word of mouth/Friend<a href="http://www.enworld.org/forum/usertag.php?do=list&action=hash&hash=2" target="_blank">#2</a>  Drive By<a href="http://www.enworld.org/forum/usertag.php?do=list&action=hash&hash=3" target="_blank">#3</a>  Google<a href="http://www.enworld.org/forum/usertag.php?do=list&action=hash&hash=4" target="_blank">#4</a>  Neighboring businessesDrive by is almost equal to word of mouth and is double what google gets us. And we have a very dynamic website with most excellent google rankings in our area.Neighboring businesses are things like the local comic shops, game stops, who send customers to us when they end up there but are looking for stuff they don't offer but they know we do. Without having a location within a mile or 2 of many of these other businesses, I also would not get referrals from them.I suspect drive by entries have grown stronger over time because those drive by customers are actually hearing about us first through word of mouth of have stumbled upon us online, but not having visited the store yet. Then later they happen to be driving by and having heard of us before, now stop, so having not "intended" to come to our store, they list that they found us by "driving by".We don't get much "walk by" foot traffic, but are located on a fairly busy road. Accessability and visibility is the key. If located on a well trafficted road, I don't think you need to be in the "downtown" shopping area per se. Just so long as you have good parking, good street visibility, are on a well travelled route and are in a nice enough area that people aren't worried about stopping, getting out of their car and spending some time there.RyanGob Retail - <a href="http://www.gobretail.com" target="_blank">GOB Retail - Great Selections for Your Gaming.</a>Guild of Blades Publishing - <a href="http://www.guildofblades.com" target="_blank">Guild of Blades Publishing Group - Great Games since 1994.</a></blockquote>

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